http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/dentist/salary
Salary Outlook
Googled it and found the info below from the link above.

"Dentists are very well compensated for the services they provide. According to the BLS, dentists earned a median salary of $146,340 in 2013. The best-paid earned more than $187,999, while the lowest-paid earned less than $72,240. Dentists who work in private offices are paid particularly well, but so are those who work alongside other health practitioners. The metropolitan areas that compensate dentists the best include Rochester, New Hampshire; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Valdosta, Georgia."

Uhh, the "best paid" make WAYY more than $187,999

I'm not disputing the $150k figure. Just that you'd have to make $450K to bring home $150K. That's just simply not true.

You're thinking of oral surgeons. That's like 5 years after dental school. Different ballgame.

To bring home 150 you would need to make around 225 or so pre tax with decent insurance.

Nah, I'm thinking tooth cleaners. I am buddies with several, they make considerably more than that

Absolutely the right answer.

Just for the record, I was not stating my income just answering the original question.

My optometrist seems to have made the right choice of professions and wise choices with his money over his career.

I think you guys are way high, of course it depends on your "wants".
My wife worked part time for the first 17 years we were married and I made about 40-60,000 each year. We've NEVER had a new car payment or a credit card bill so that's one way we make it fine. We eat out some, but we cook a lot too. I take snacks to work, never use the machine. Only payment we've had is the house payment and that's hard (but not impossible) to eliminate. We've never made over 90,000 a year and I have 3 kids. I don't WANT for anything, but I don't drive a 40,000 truck either.

I wanna know how many Welders there are in the state of AL that make $70K per year and sleep at home every night.

Fur you may want to go back and read my post. I clearly stated that those are the ones willing to travel. I personally know a young man that went to a trade school went on the road right after he came out and was making more than that with his per diem. I was also commenting on what I might do if I was 19 years old as well. Much easier to travel when your young and don't have a family.

Very few if any and if they are they are working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. You need to be careful putting out these huge numbers for tradesmen. You will be lucky to top out at 50k in any trade job in alabama unless you own your own business. Everyone doesn't need to go to college but let's be realistic.

If I had about 1.5 million, I think I could make it the rest of my life as long as I had a part time job for play money.
As far as making money, the railroad seems to be the way to go. I used to work with a guy with a Masters degree from UGA. He got tired of management and took a railroad job, and knocks back about 130 a year with a 3 day weekend most weeks, and insane benefits and retirement. He's gone alot Monday through Thursday , but man, the thought of having a pension and benefits and retiring in your mid 50's would be awesome.

Yeah, I missed that. I know a LOT of travelling welders. They can make good money, no doubt but they are also working in an atmosphere that I wouldn't want my son to be working in.

Before I make this next statement, everybody recognize I'm NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL WELDERS WHO TRAVEL.

A whole lot of those guys get strung out on various types of drugs. Meth is a big one. There are many crews around here that travel and weld all weekend while plants are down. Most of them TIG weld stainless. Most of them make about $15-$18 per hour not including per diem.

A bunch in this area.

How many and where do they work?

EDIT: $70K per year is $33.65 per hour.

The grass is always greener. Everyone that works a desk knows guys making twice as much working with their hands and everyone working out in the sun all day knows everyone sitting in the a/c all day at a desk is making twice what they make.

Im 24 years old and life has been good so far, I went to Auburn knowing I wanted to study agriculture as well as farm. I came back home knowing I wanted to remain in the chicken buisness, but NOT living out of them. So now I am a broiler fieldman for a local poultry company. My wife( fiance at the time) both knew what my career would be and we knew that insurance was a must, so she decided to become a teacher, and has since she got out of school. Now we are in the process of building our home with chicken houses to come, to serve only as a supplemental income toward our dwelling house. Life is good and God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and helping me with my decisions in life.

You may be missing the point of my post. We can debate whether welding is the best trade or not. The point I was making is that if you're 19, and you're weighing your options and setting goals for your life. Then you can go off to college and spend several years and most likely acquire debt doing it. Or you can learn a good trade in a much shorter time frame with little to no debt and hit the road while your young and make some good money. I did it with telecommunications as a contract cable splicer. There are many options and fields that pay as much or more than kids getting out of college. The other point I was making that when you look at the time value of money, the kid that goes the trade route can begin investing his money right away and be way ahead of the guys coming out of college in most cases. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking those who want to go to college, but we've got to quit telling our kids all their lives they've got to go to college to be successful.